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The Toronto Coach Terminal is the central bus station for inter-city services in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It is located at 610 Bay Street, in the city's Downtown. The terminal is owned by Toronto Coach Terminal Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of the Toronto Transit Commission (TTC).[1] The TTC managed the station directly until July 8, 2012, when it was leased out in its entirety to bus lines Coach Canada and Greyhound Canada for $1.2 million annually.[2][3] Opened in 1931 as the Gray Coach Terminal, the Art Deco style terminal was home base for Gray Coach, an interurban bus service then owned by the TTC. It replaced an earlier open air terminal, Gray Line Terminal.[4]

Location

Entrance to the Toronto Coach Terminal on Bay St.

The Toronto Coach Terminal is located one block west of Dundas subway station, and connected to it underground via the PATH network. It is also about the same distance from St. Patrick subway station. The bus platforms are located on Edward Street, on the west side of the terminal building. A small side entrance on the west side off Elizabeth Street, is connected to the main concourse area on Bay Street by a corridor behind the bus platforms.

Renovations

The bus platforms at the rear of the main terminal, as seen from above. Departure platforms are housed in the structure in the middle, while the structure in the distant right houses the arrival platforms.

The terminal is a two-storey historic building with a four platform bays designed by architect Charles B. Dolphin. and later expanded with seven bay platforms. In 1984, the building containing the east bus bays was renovated by demolishing the internal walls, keeping the external north and west walls intact—a process known as facadism.[5] An annex, located to the west of the main terminal building on Elizabeth Street, houses buses using the terminal. A renovation of the main terminal building occurred in 1990 to create more seating for waiting passengers and an upstairs restaurant which has since been closed with railings overlooking main floor enclosed with glass.

The modern west annex was originally built to handle GO Transit bus arrivals and departures but with the relocation of GO buses to the new Union Station Bus Terminal on Front Street in 2003, the annex now handles arrivals for the remaining bus lines while departures leave from the main terminal, a set-up that is rather unusual for bus terminals or other passenger transportation infrastructure. Nearby landmarks include the Toronto Eaton Centre, the Atrium on Bay, the Hospital for Sick Children, and the Toronto City Hall and Nathan Phillips Square. It is also within walking distance of Chinatown.

Services

The terminal is now used by Coach Canada, Greyhound Canada, and Ontario Northland.

From the Toronto Coach Terminal, Coach Canada operates casino shuttles from Toronto to Fallsview Casino in Niagara Falls. Under the Megabus Canada brand, Coach Canada operates double-decker buses to Montreal via Kingston with stops in Kirkland, QC, Cornwall, Brockville, and the Scarborough Centre Bus Terminal. Coach Canada also operates buses to Niagara Falls, with select buses going to Buffalo and Buffalo International Airport. In conjunction with Megabus USA (operated by Coach USA), Coach Canada operates buses to Buffalo, NY, Buffalo International Airport, Rochester on limited schedules, Syracuse, New York City, Boston, Philadelphia, and Washington, D.C. Please see the Toronto Hub section on this page for more information on their schedules.

Greyhound Canada operates buses from the Toronto Coach Terminal to Ottawa, Belleville, Peterborough, Pembroke, London, Windsor, and Detroit.

Greyhound Canada also operates a small network of commuter services branded as Quicklink. Buses run from the Toronto Coach Terminal to Barrie, Cambridge, Guelph, Kitchener, Niagara Falls, St. Catharines, Peterborough, and Waterloo.

Future

Metrolinx, the government agency that oversees transit in the Greater Toronto and Hamilton Area, plans to construct a new intercity bus terminal, which would ideally replace both the Coach Terminal and Union Station Bus Terminal and house GO Transit buses, Greyhound and Coach Canada in one location. The Coach Terminal proposed that a new facility be built at the terminal's current location combining the original terminal and the Elizabeth Street annex into one structure that could fit double the current number of bus bays.[6] However, in September 2014 Metrolinx announced plans to relocate the Union Station Bus Terminal to a new terminal building and development at 45 Bay Street.[7] The relocation of intercity bus service from the Coach Terminal to the new station is under negotiation.[8] In April 2017, TTC staff proposed that the terminal be declared surplus when Coach Canada and Greyhound Canada vacate the terminal. The city agency Build Toronto is interested in acquiring the property for redevelopment.[9]

See also

  • Sunnyside Bus Terminal, a satellite Gray Coach passenger terminal that operated in Toronto's west end until the bus line's closure.

References

  1. ^ a b TTC Subsidiary Companies
  2. ^ Ask Torontoist: What’s Happening at the Toronto Coach Terminal?, Torontoist
  3. ^ McAllister, Mark (2015-02-16). "Toronto Coach Terminal hampered with maintenance issues". Global News. Retrieved 2016-02-19. 
  4. ^ Opening Day at the Toronto Coach Terminal, 1931
  5. ^ http://transit.toronto.on.ca/archives/data/200812220430.shtml
  6. ^ Allen, Kate (January 7, 2012). "Landmark bus depot loses its lustre". Toronto Star. Retrieved January 8, 2012. 
  7. ^ http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/union-station-getting-new-go-bus-terminal-office-tower-development-1.2782397
  8. ^ "45 BAY & UNION STATION GO BUS TERMINAL REDEVELOPMENT SITE PLAN APPLICATION" (PDF). 2014-09-24. Retrieved 2014-05-31. 
  9. ^ "Toronto Coach Terminal Inc. (TCTI) – 610 Bay Street and 130 Elizabeth Street, Toronto – Lease Disposition" (PDF). Toronto Transit Commission. 2017-04-20. Retrieved 2017-04-20. 

External links

Media related to Toronto Coach Terminal at Wikimedia Commons

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